Things to do when installing your first new SSD

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Engineer

Engineer

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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If installing Windows 7, generally let it set up the partitions (so no manual alignment necessary). Make sure to turn off scheduled defrag of the drive (if it isn't already off) as you don't need to defrag your SSD. It's recommended to do a fresh install vs image because of $bitmap of the drive and how TRIM works from it.

If OS other than Windows 7, recommendations may change.
 
C

Claudius-07

Member
Dec 4, 2009
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With how good the Intel drives perform, all the original tweaks are really not needed anymore. If you have enough RAM, some suggest disabling your pagefile. I have 8 GB and have had it off since the first day of using my system. Never ever had one issue. I also don't use Hibernate so I have disabled that. Some suggest to disable superfetch but I never did. Again it's blazing fast.

You might just ensure to install only the OS and apps on the drive, but make sure default download directories, etc., are stored somewhere else.
 
techs

techs

Lifer
Sep 26, 2000
28,559
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This is from my other post:

Updated to latest firmware (took just a minute or two, is that normal?), then installed Windows 7.

Then:

Verified Trim using: fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify
Turned off Disk Defragmenter.
Turned off System Restore.
Turned off Indexing.
Installed Intel SSD toolbox
Ran Intel Optimizer. Took about 3 seconds (is that usual?)
 
V

Voo

Golden Member
Feb 27, 2009
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techs said:
Verified Trim using: fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify
Click to expand...
The only tells you that the OS is supporting TRIM and not if the SSD does anything with these commands. And since it's on by default on windows you'll always get the same answer if you don't deactivate it manually.

Also not sure why you would like to run the optimizer under Win7 on a new drive.
 
techs

techs

Lifer
Sep 26, 2000
28,559
4
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Voo said:
The only tells you that the OS is supporting TRIM and not if the SSD does anything with these commands. And since it's on by default on windows you'll always get the same answer if you don't deactivate it manually.

Also not sure why you would like to run the optimizer under Win7 on a new drive.
Click to expand...

I ran disabledeletenotify since I had read that some people were not getting a 0 since Win7 did not detect the drive as an SSD. The idea is that it unless you are set to AHCI in the bios, or there is some other incompatibility or bios setting that is wrong Win 7 may not detect thats it an SSD.

I really didn't know what the Intel Toolbox does in Win7, so just to be sure I ran it. Probably that's why it took just a second or two to run. I need to do some more research on the Intel Toolbox on Win 7.
 
rivethead

rivethead

Platinum Member
Jan 16, 2005
2,635
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My understanding is that CrystalDiskInfo is really the only way to know that your SSD is running TRIM commands. Like mentioned above, the disabledeletenotify just tells you if Windows supports the TRIM command, not that it is actually being used.
 
rivethead

rivethead

Platinum Member
Jan 16, 2005
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Do you have to manually disable defrag? I thought W7 did that automatically when it detected an SSD (and only for the SSD...if it detects a magnetic drive it will still leave defrag available for those).
 
G

Gildor57

Member
Nov 14, 2009
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rivethead said:
Do you have to manually disable defrag? I thought W7 did that automatically when it detected an SSD (and only for the SSD...if it detects a magnetic drive it will still leave defrag available for those).
Click to expand...
Worked that way for me.

When I did a fresh install of Win7, all I did was update the firmware, turn on AHCI in BIOS, install the OS, and I was done. The install process was smart enough to turn off defrag and the other things not necessary for a SSD.

I did do a few tweaks afterward, but it was geared toward saving space rather than optimizing the SSD. My last system's C: drive was always on the ragged edge in terms of free disc space, and it caused me no end of problems. Made me a bit paranoid about space on the C: drive. So, for my new system, the tweaks included things like leaving pagefile on, but knocking down the space it uses to 512K, moving the "My Folders" space to a HDD, and moving cache, temp and other such folders from the application to the spindle based drive.
 
rivethead

rivethead

Platinum Member
Jan 16, 2005
2,635
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106
Gildor57 said:
Worked that way for me.

When I did a fresh install of Win7, all I did was update the firmware, turn on AHCI in BIOS, install the OS, and I was done. The install process was smart enough to turn off defrag and the other things not necessary for a SSD.

I did do a few tweaks afterward, but it was geared toward saving space rather than optimizing the SSD. My last system's C: drive was always on the ragged edge in terms of free disc space, and it caused me no end of problems. Made me a bit paranoid about space on the C: drive. So, for my new system, the tweaks included things like leaving pagefile on, but knocking down the space it uses to 512K, moving the "My Folders" space to a HDD, and moving cache, temp and other such folders from the application to the spindle based drive.
Click to expand...

Thanks Gildor57! - that is my plan exactly (clean install, space tweaks especially moving the My Documents files to another drive).
 
V

Voo

Golden Member
Feb 27, 2009
1,684
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techs said:
I really didn't know what the Intel Toolbox does in Win7, so just to be sure I ran it. Probably that's why it took just a second or two to run. I need to do some more research on the Intel Toolbox on Win 7.
Click to expand...
It just manually trims the drive, e.g. it sends trim commands for the free parts of the filesystem. That's only useful if you're using a OS that doesn't support TRIM, so with Win7 you're set and can forget about that.
 
C

curtisfong

Member
Jul 7, 2003
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if I were to make a secondary partition on the an 80G intel (like 35/45), does the secondary partition need to be aligned too?
 
L

LOUISSSSS

Diamond Member
Dec 5, 2005
8,771
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how much space should i have left after formatting the 40gb SSD and installing Windows 7?

do you guys think its a good idea to just get the Intel 40gb for now and use it for some months until SSD technology improves and gets cheaper?
as of now, i've just installed a good amt of programs on my HTPC and have used about 24gb.
 
Hacp

Hacp

Lifer
Jun 8, 2005
13,923
2
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LOUISSSSS said:
how much space should i have left after formatting the 40gb SSD and installing Windows 7?

do you guys think its a good idea to just get the Intel 40gb for now and use it for some months until SSD technology improves and gets cheaper?
as of now, i've just installed a good amt of programs on my HTPC and have used about 24gb.
Click to expand...

Windows 7 and Vista are just space hogs. For 40gb drives, I would stick with XP. I would look into the OCZ agility I posted. 2.17 dollars per gb is probably as good as it gets.

Way cheaper SSDs probably won't happen for a while. They're still probably going to stay above the 2 dollar per gb mark.

Right now, Intel is planning 160gb drives as its mainstream in Q4-2010. Prices dropped 30-40% going from the 50nm to 34nm shrink for Intel drives. Going from 34nm to 25nm should get at least another 30%. So you'll probably see 160gb drives for around 300 next year.

BTW, I can't tell if thats a G1 or G2. At first I thought it was G1, but now I'm thinking its G2 after looking at the picture. The G2 is silver and the G1 is black.
 
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L

LOUISSSSS

Diamond Member
Dec 5, 2005
8,771
57
91
i've only installed about 25gb of OS&programs that are NECESSARY. the other 10gb, i can use for random programs like steam, etc...

should i just spring for the 80gb? wheres the best price for this atm?
 
Anubis

Anubis

No Lifer
Aug 31, 2001
78,712
427
126
tbqhwy.com
the price at Newegg for that 80gb is about as cheap as you are going to get TBH, I really wish the price of 120GB ones would drop my win install (vista) + progs + games is currently eating about 90 GBs

:(
 
Zap

Zap

Elite Member
Oct 13, 1999
22,377
7
81
Hacp said:
BTW, I can't tell if thats a G1 or G2. At first I thought it was G1, but now I'm thinking its G2 after looking at the picture. The G2 is silver and the G1 is black.
Click to expand...

According to the part number and the Newegg reviews, if you purchased the exact one that you linked to, it is a G2.
 
zerocool84

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
Claudius-07 said:
With how good the Intel drives perform, all the original tweaks are really not needed anymore. If you have enough RAM, some suggest disabling your pagefile. I have 8 GB and have had it off since the first day of using my system. Never ever had one issue. I also don't use Hibernate so I have disabled that. Some suggest to disable superfetch but I never did. Again it's blazing fast.

You might just ensure to install only the OS and apps on the drive, but make sure default download directories, etc., are stored somewhere else.
Click to expand...

You should never turn off pagefile. There are many programs and applications that need it and could error if it's not there. If your system is fast enough it might not even need it but no one should ever recommend anyone to turn it off.
 
Hacp

Hacp

Lifer
Jun 8, 2005
13,923
2
81
zerocool84 said:
You should never turn off pagefile. There are many programs and applications that need it and could error if it's not there. If your system is fast enough it might not even need it but no one should ever recommend anyone to turn it off.
Click to expand...

Keep it at 100mb or some other low number.
 
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